Anyone having problems with BT billing for broadband?

beginning to think the same Harvey. Maybe leave Eircom alone with one of basic talk time packages and use talktalk for international calls ( 13636)

My 12 month BB is coming to an end and I hope they will terminate the contract without the hassle discussed. I thought this to be an option but this thread appears to say otherwise. If BT over charge your CC, can you not just issue a chargeback through the CC?

S.

maybe there is a €30 disconnect charge from eircom, maybe not, and check if you own the modem (some do some do not) or BT will charge an extra €100 for it if not sent back.

I signed up to BT Broadband at the end of July (offer was Broadband and line rental for €25 for first 4 months, then reverting to €40 per month). I have yet to receive an accurate bill from BT. Have called at least three times (probably more) and only got partial refunds but not the full amount. Checked my latest online bill today and found that, not only did the promised refund not materialise, but they are overcharging me yet again (line rental + BB for 2 months for over €100 when it should be €80). Called customer care and, guess what, they tried to tell me that I had not called to complain the previous month (which I had) - obviously they are having similar problems with their CRM system to what they are having with their billling system. Anyway appears the overcharging on the latest bill was a known error so I suggest that you all verify your bill very closely this month as judging from the answer I got probably everyone is effected.

Also, the promised free upgrade from 1MB down to 2MB down in January never materialised. Looks like you have to call to complain before your get it.

For anyone contemplating signing up with BT broadband, I would strongly recommend that you do no such thing. Very bad company, unreadable bills / major problems with billing system & rubbish customer care support (though they did seem good on the technical support side).

Yes, I too am one of those that have a problem with BT's billing. I have the E40/month bundle but I keep getting billed separately for the line rental and the stand alone broadband service which works out more expensive obviously.

Also, they have me on Talk Plus despite many attempts to get on the Talk only product.

And as I'm at it, I have made many attempts to stop those intrusive telephone marketing calls by completing the online form on my BT account. Yet, I keep getting the calls!

The Consumers Association is after BT over their kakky billing now . If you register a complaint with the consumers association they now apparently have a liason officer within BT who cleans up the billing problems for them.

story here



and you may register your complaint here

[broken link removed]

Posted application for Bt Broadband in early Dec05.Moving from eircom.
Discovered, today, they know nothing of the application.

shake hands grumpy. EXACTLY what they have informed me. three times now. despite on one occasion actually taking all the details over the phone again. unreal. I have an email from them dated 26/01( with a customer complaint reference number) which states that they give complaints priority and will be back to me as soon as possible. for what its worth one of their staff informed me that a number of applications for broadband and line rental were 'missed'.

BT, My Broadband, What a JOKE

Yes i've joined that huge and ever growing line of disgruntled BT customers..... I'll tell you what happened ....


For a number of years I have been a Broadband customer of BTIreland. Last August I received a phone call from BT billing informing me that my account was in deficit to the tune of €563.44. Apparently a problem had developed with my Direct Debit with I had set up and was paying with BT. For over a year BT had not been taking payments for the Broadband service out of my account. To be honest, I hadn’t noticed that the payments were not going out of my account, but once I investigated I found that they were correct, I did actually owe them the €563. That was fine; I have no problems paying my bills. I rang BT billing and gave the operator my credit card details and he told me, that’s great, your account is now clear. The payment went through on my credit card early September.

At this point I forgot about BT until I applied for their online billing option in early October, about a month and a half after I paid the bill by credit card. When I logged onto BT's site and viewed my online bill, I noticed that the €563 was still down as owing on my account. I immediately contacted BT billing, who said they would have to initiate a payment trace to find the payment, as they had no record of it. I provided BT with details of the credit card payment, my card type/bank and the date and reference number of the transaction. They told me they have all the information they need. This payment trace is down on BT's system as having begun in mid October '05. I was told I would be informed when it was finished.

Over the next few month's I contacted BT regularly to see if they had found the missing payment. On each occasion I was told that the case was high priority and somebody would ring me back very shortly. They never did. In actual fact, they took the payment out of my account via Direct Debit again on the 13th of February '06. So, to clarify, I made the payment of €563 in August '05, this payment was not applied to my account with BT and by the start of February '06 this bill had risen to €818, which includes the €563 which I had already paid by credit card, and the rest is made up of the legitimate broadband bill for the months between August '05 and February '06.

At this point one of BT's operators suggested to me that I contact BT's complaints department, because the credit trace was just not being done. On the 15th February '06 I emailed off to complaints@btireland.com . I received a reply telling me my complaint has been logged, an investigation will take place and that I will be informed. In the email I’m also told that if I require any information on the case to ring a number listed in the email. However, the number is constantly on voicemail :mad: I have left two messages but no one has returned my calls. I have rang BT's 1904 number several times trying to speak to anyone from Residential customer complaints, but was unable to speak to anyone. I forgot to mention earlier I was promised a manager call back twice on the lost payment issue, but no one ever called me back. One of BT's customer service operators actually hung up the phone on me and was extremely rude.

BT's customer service is disgraceful. I am unable to talk to a person who can sort the mess out. BT is not returning my calls and I am ringing BT's 1904 number and then being put on hold by an operator who checks if their is someone available to deal with the call and then being told their is no one available. Obviously I have cancelled my Direct Debit with BT with my bank.

I long for the day when I’m rid of BT for good. I have literally made 20 phone calls to them (and the same amount of emails). If I see anything with a BT logo on it I will run a mile (no joke here).

I get the feeling that this is well-oiled machine BT have and the machine is definitely not customer focused. BT does this because they can get away with it. What's to stop them?

I have contacted comreq about this situation and they emailed me telling me they would contact BT on my behalf.

Update: Today (28/02/06) I got a letter from BT, from a complaint officer called Linda Loughran, she says
"Thank you for your recent contact received via Com Reg regarding problems experienced. Please accept my sincere apologies on behalf of BT for any inconvenience that this has caused" blah blah blah

So it seems contacting Com Reg does work in some way. I also received an email from BT telling me that after a thorough investigation (ROFL), they have found my payment. They have informed me they will put the payment on my credit card shortly. I'm waiting now for this to happen....

So it looks (fingers crossed until i get the money back) as if my BT experience is coming to an end. Thank all that's holy

Peace and good luck all you current and future BT customers, your certainly going to need it .....

Don't hold your breath waiting for the money to arrive. I trust they haven't at any stage charged you interest for late payment. You might think about asking them for interest for the period it takes them to refund you. That would be from when they took the money the second time until it's back in your account.

Problems with free upgrade from 1Mbps to 2Mbps download speed?

wibblewobble said:

Also, the promised free upgrade from 1MB down to 2MB down in January never materialised. Looks like you have to call to complain before your get it.

Click to expand...

I complained to BT on 18 Feb and again last Monday and have yet to get the upgrade to 2Mbps down. Anyone else experiencing the same problem ?

€120 credit from bt yesterday. no explanation. just checked my electronic bill and its in credit. took a few mins to decipher it. full bill again ie €53.72 + vat @21% = €65 for 'paper bill' but other charges are €-99.18 and vat is also -9.54. ( you have to work out the vat refund on €99.18+ the vat due on the €53.72 to get to the €120.) Clever. in short I get €120 but BT only pay €98.18. fat man from offaly picks up difference.
better than a kick up the backside but still not what I ordered nor is there an explanation on my emails how they arrived at this conclusion. this still has legs.

I signed up for BB+,Talk+ and line rental Sept 05. I've had most of the usual problems, no order found, part order supplied, incorrect billing etc...
I'm sticking to email for complaints so I have a hard copy of BT's replies including the platitudes of how important I am and how seriously they take it... And it is still ongoing...

I'm now wondering about their charges per call. Anyone else carefully examined their calculations?

For example:
Their website states that a weekend call to an O2 mobile costs €0.1024 per minute inclusive of VAT but that the call is charged per second.

So you would expect that a weekend call to an O2 mobile that lasted 95 seconds would cost:
95 X 0.1024 / 60= €0.162133 Gross or €0.133994 Net.
But they list it as €0.17 Net on my bill (when exported to Excel). It seems they are charging €0.13 per minute.

It could be that they have a lot 'done'.
I've 'more to do'!

Well its off to COMREG with me. I have had virtually no joy with BT. Have spoken to them on the phone, they have confirmed they will reimburse the overcharged amounts they owe me but have seen none of it. I'm completely at a loss when dealing with them so I'm in the process of documenting the entire sorry saga to sent to COMREG.
Has anyone actually received a refund from them?
Has anyone actually EVER been billed correctly by them?
I feel very sorry for the people who work in their call centre. They must be getting some serious abuse.....
At this stage despite sending written complaints to them, all I'm getting back is a complaint number but no responses. This service is shocking and I would never have anything to do with them again as a residential or business user.

I did receive a refund from them. It only took three billing cycles to come through, with calls every time I got the bill without the amount credited back to my account.

Seagull thats good to hear. I'll live in hope then. Did you have the name of someone who helped you? Did you use Comreg?

I just called customer service and spoke to whoever answered the phone.

Lauren:
Michelle McLaughlin, residential complaints manager, BT replied to my complaint when I demaned a customer complaint reference number as instructed by comreg. the girl in comreg was Lorraine. Said the first thing you need is this number. BT ignored me until I asked for it. I have since replied saying that I am not satisfied as the service I signed up for ie line rental &broadband for €40 per month was still not provided by them as I am still with eircom for line rental etc . but at least I did get the €120 refund. I figure I was actually owed 4 months @€15 plus 3 bills @€5 a total of €75 plus the rental for broadband for the weeks before I actually got connected. As for your query about anyone getting an accurate bill from BT for its services- I very much doubt it. They dont even have the foggiest what you are talking about when you ring them. Not a clue. it's like ringing a home for the bewildered.
detail your main complaints to bt and state that comreg have advised you that bt must supply a customer complaints reference number. they will reply with one fairly quickly and about 6 weeks later you should get your first refund.
cheers and good luck

Lauren I managed to get my refund off esatBT earlier this week. I nearly fell over from shock when I saw it. It is possible to get the refund but it takes a long time and a lot of effort. It's sad to say that BT only did something when Conreg contacted them on my behalf. Any decent company would have sorted this problem out in days not months, one or two phone calls not twenty plus calls and the same or more emails. They are a disgrace. I've cancelled my DD with them and if I ever have any dealings with them again it will be far too soon.

I got a letter from BT after Comreg wrote to them about my case, thanking me for contacting BT via comreg, the letter is signed by Linda Loughran. She gives a number inviting me to contact her if I have any questions. It's not actually her number (LOL), I rang the number and it goes straight to the voicemail of another complaints officer. Of course I've rang it a few times, left a message but nobody called me back (what a surprise)

Actually, I encourage anyone reading this who has had similiar problems with esatBT to check out a thread on boards.ie (in the broadband section). A member named surveys is compiling a dossier of complaints against BT and sending them to BT's European Director. I think its a good idea and have sent him an email giving my story. Check it out if you're so inclined. You'll get your refund eventually + a few extra grey hairs, pith that .....

EDIT: I just noticed you started this thread Lauren, last November ... Comreg will help you get your money, don't worry your not the only 1 on the BT billing merry go round, peace and try not to get too frustrated

I'm almost emotional writing this! I FINALLY got a letter from BT admitting they were over charging me to the tune of over 400 Euro over the term of the contract and that a refund is on the horizon. They want to 'CREDIT' my account but I have replied saying I want a cheque refund. Hopefully I will actually get the money in the near future but at least they have admitted their mistake, in writing, so theres light at the end of the tunnel!